Gay couples in Michigan go from elation to a state of limbo

That's the status of same-sex couples in Michigan who had hoped to marry after last Friday's ruling from federal judge Bernard Friedman, a ruling that struck down Michigan's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

More than 300 couples rushed to speak their vows on Saturday before the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of Judge Friedman's ruling until appeals proceedings conclude.

And now we have heard from Gov. Rick Snyder about those couples. He said the state will not recognize those marriages.

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Most of all, perhaps, the 300 or so same-sex couples who got married last Saturday, after a federal judge overturned Michigan’s amendment outlawing such marriages. U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman ruled, as expected, that our state’s constitutional prohibition of such marriages was wrong.

But unlike federal judges in other states where this happened, he did not put his ruling on hold till the appellate courts could rule, so there was a mad scramble for licenses and ceremonies in those counties where the clerks were sympathetic.

On Friday, March 21, U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman struck down Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage.

The next day, clerks in Ingham, Washtenaw, Oakland and Muskegon counties opened their doors to issue marriage licenses. More than 300 people were pronounced man and husband, or woman and wife, before 5 p.m. Then a stay was issued by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which forced clerks to cease marrying gay couples.